Sunday, July 26, 2009

Today, the fourth Sunday in July, is Parent’s Day. Haven’t heard of it? President Bill Clinton named this one just 15 years ago, back in 1994. According to the unanimously-approved Congressional Resolution, Parents’ Day is established for "recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children."

Instead of the usual Sunday Challenge 12x12 Hidden Word Sudoku puzzle, I’m challenging you with Qudoku puzzle sets: solve the Word Sudoku puzzles and copy the circled letters into their corresponding numbered positions in the quote grid to spell out the quotes.

Here are two Qudoku puzzle sets spelling out quotes about parents and their children.

RASHLY6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

TUCKED6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

MOVING6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly onceCopy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the quote

DROP IN6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the words exactly once

CAUGHT6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

MYSELF6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly onceCopy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the quote

WHY AIM6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and the set of circled cells contain the letters in the word or phrase exactly once; copy the numbered letters into the corresponding cells of the quote grid to unveil the state nickname (on the first line) and the state name (on the last).

Saturday, July 25, 2009

A Tom Swifty is an adverbial pun that simultaneously describes a speaker and refers to the speaker's statement. The name comes from the Tom Swift book series for young readers. The authors were roundly criticized for overusing adverbs and descriptive phrases, so that Tom hardly ever said "said" and rarely said anything without a qualifying adverb. A Tom Swifty pun is a parody of this style.

FROZENSwifty Sudoku: 6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

UPSIDE6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

PLY JAW6x6 Word Sudoku PuzzleEach row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the words exactly onceCopy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the Tom Swifty

Thursday, July 23, 2009

How many words can you think of that contain the listed consonants, in order, and include no other consonants?

Karen Richards poses this question, which she calls a Constant Consonants puzzle, a couple Mondays each month in her puzzle blog http://puzzlebits.wordpress.com/. Karen is a former puzzle magazine editor. Please visit her blog for full rules for her Constant Consonants puzzles, as well as other fun and intriguing (i.e., challenging) puzzles.

On Monday 7/20/2009 Karen posed her puzzle using the four consonants P, R, T and N. Here's a Qudoku puzzle set supplying letters to spell out 7 of the longest answers I found for these Constant Consonants.

TRUE PIANO9x9 Constant Consonant Word Sudoku: PRTNEach row, column, 3x3 square and the set of circled letters contains the letters in the anagram exactly onceCopy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cell in the quote grid to spell out the "Constant Consonants" PRTN words

And here’s a different Word Sudoku puzzle, using the same letters but with different numbering assignments, spelling out the 8 shortest answers I found for the Constant Consonants PRTN.

OUTER PAIN9x9 Constant Consonant Word Sudoku: PRTNEach row, column, 3x3 square and the set of circled letters contains the letters in the anagram exactly onceCopy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cell in the quote grid to spell out the "Constant Consonants" PRTN words